#I like to write more of them being zany and just having fun together because I wish they could just click back together

[being-of-rain]

Time to write down my initial thoughts on Space Babies and The Devil's Chord! I'm currently busy staying with my girlfriend in America, so I've only watched the episodes once. And there's a lot of episode to talk about! I guess this is the most TV Doctor Who to come out on a single day, both by episode count and I assume by runtime. (I sure hope it doesn't get overtaken any time soon. Weekly episode schedule my beloved, whole-series-at-once events my despised.)

I've said before that I've used the word 'fun' too often as a way to sum-up new episodes, but it looks like that's going to be harder and harder to avoid. This season so far has a very wacky zany silly cartoonish style (especially apparent in the lead duo's energy together) and I think that's the season's greatest strength. My opinion on both of these first two episodes are similar: they're just okay, with the pros and the cons kinda balancing each other out, but the cartoony style makes them much more enjoyable to watch.

Under the cut I'll go into more details. Probably more complaining than not, because nitpicking is always easier to spend time on, but here's your regular reminder that these are opinions and anyone reading is encouraged to disagree.

And if you thought my ramblings about new episodes were long before, this time there's two at once!

--

Grossout stuff like bodily functions never really appealed to me, and neither does talking babies, so Space Babies had those things against it. But it also had things that I loved; on top of the infectious energy of the leads, there were some fun sci-fi concepts, playing with storybook narrative, and the design of the Bogeyman. And the Doctor saying that "nobody grows up wrong" was alone worth the episode. I adore that sentiment and it fits so well into Doctor Who with its constant cast of scary aliens, artificially altered or created beings, and characters with generally convoluted backstories. It's just a shame the episode faltered at its climax when applying that idea to the Bogeyman, because the sympathising and acceptance of it felt very rushed.

It's fun when new companions get an introduction scene or two where the show tries to teach as many of the important rules and backstory as possible. And Butterfly Ruby certainly was a hilarious addition to that. But as much as the show is allowed to mess around with time travel rules, it can still feel contrived when it says things like 'taking Ruby to meet her mum is too dangerous.' I can't think of a reason why they couldn't just park a bit further down Ruby Road and talk to her after she seemingly doesn't have any more effect on Ruby or the Doctor's lives. I'll talk more about the ongoing story arc stuff in a bit, but right now I still haven't strongly connected with Ruby. This is very much a personal thing, but she still feels kinda Generic Companion to me.

Oh, and I think every time the Doctor talks about how the Time Lords are gone and he's the Last One, I'm going to groan and roll my eyes. Honestly I think the best thing to do with that is just show that a lot of Time Lord society survived (very easy, since there's no reason at all that most of them couldn't have just run away from whatever the Master did to the Capitol) and then just move on. I'd love to explore post-War Time Lord society more, but at this point I'd rather just leave them alone and be done with retreading old ground that the show is not going to actually do anything with other than the odd angsty line.

--

The Devil's Chord had a lot of fantastic moments and elements, but that made it more frustrating to me when it didn't put the effort into fitting everything just a little better. It reminds me of my thoughts on The Giggle; I love love love whimsy and emotionally-driven stories, and stories don't have to be a slave to logic all the time, but moments of silliness or entire plots that revolve around whimsy are so much more satisfying if they have a narrative logic behind them. I think a prime example is the song at the end of The Devil's Chord: even if it's not particularly good (most songs that are just repeating one line for 90% of its runtime aren't going to interest me), it's whimsical and joyous and makes me want to see Tardis teams sing and dance more often. But it doesn't have an in-story reason to happen, it doesn't quite fit the episode's tone, and (as much fun as fans have been having fitting it into the season arc) the episode doesn't even really have a twist at the end. If any of those things weren't true, the song would've had so much more impact than it did, and I find it annoying that the episode couldn't shuffle things just a bit to make it work.

Somewhat similarly, the Maestro themself was spectacularly entertaining, but also felt rather shallow and full of missed opportunities. I was already a bit over RTD writing flamboyant and random queer-coded villains after he reinvented the Toymaker the same way he reinvented the Master (although a drag queen certainly adds a welcome layer to that) but it was sad that Maestro had the same surface-level connection to music as RTD's Toymaker had to games. Yeah they climb out of pianos and use sheet-music-themed whips and dress in a conductor's outfit, but that sounds more like a Batman villain than a Concept Made Flesh. Sure they can magically-somehow stop the world making music, but their motivation for it is... kill everyone in the universe? I really hope RTD can write better Old Gods than his last two if he plans to make them recurring villains. (By the way I assume that the world losing the ability to make music for two decades was magically unwritten at the end, but then again I assumed the same thing about the Flux destroying the universe and that was only half undone.)

Also, I know not every historical episode has to be a 2005-10 style celebrity historical (even though that might be one of my favourite ways of doing it), but if they didn't want to do that then it felt a bit out of place to have two of the Beatles turn up at the very end, with no idea what was going on, and save the day. (And the other two Beatles vanished completely. ...I know the other two were a bit less famous, but after learning that RTD ships the Supernatural brothers, I really wouldn't be surprised to learn he ships McCartney and Lennon.)

Anyway, some other fun or great moments that I wish were in a slightly more coherent episode are: Ruby playing her lovesick lesbian song, the Doctor and Ruby doing their piano battle together, the sonic silence scene, and the destroyed London scene which Maestro abruptly turned into a black background. Oh, and the Doctor saying "I thought that was non-diagetic" was hilarious, I think fans are going to get a lot of mileage out of the idea that the Doctor can hear the background music in older episodes.

Other random things about the episode: it did make me think of Scherzo's fairytale about the king who banished music from his realm. As a batfamily fan, the music teacher at the start being named Timothy Drake for no reason is confusing and funny. It's a niche pet peeve but I think its silly when fiction ties itself to when it's coming out for no reason or in contradiction to its own continuity, so Ruby saying her present day is mid-2024 baffled and irritated me. Since the last episode she's either been travelling with the Doctor for several months, staying at home for several months, or has decided to skip several months ahead, none of which seem very likely.

One last thing I'll say about The Devil's Chord is that the zany cartoonish energy, the visiting of recent history, and the magical menace all remind me of Legends of Tomorrow. It's one of my comfort shows that puts a lot of plot importance and stress on whimsy, jokes, and feel-good moments, but actually does tie them into the narrative. Compared to the last half dozen episodes of Doctor Who, Legends is more of an outright comedy, but its more satisfying and the emotional beats hit harder. If its trying for a more similar tone, I hope Doctor Who can reach the same highs as Legends (which, to be fair, took a few seasons to figure things out).

--

Finally I'll talk about the story arc! Or story arcs, because there's a lot going on. And looking back at his first time on the show, I realise RTD is a big fan of arcs that are basically just repeating things in the background that don't have any impact until the last few episodes. Personally I prefer arcs with a bit more relevance and development, but unfortunately that's probably harder to do on Doctor Who with less episodes.

That said, I was very surprised that Ruby's arc is one of the most interesting things to me in these episodes. The Doctor's memory of her mother changing and then breaking through into the real world is cool as hell, and then Ruby having something about her that trips up a god is really compelling 👀 Is that girl a cosmic horror??

On the other hand, another mention of 'the One Who Waits' is really boring lol. Just another ominous name that everyone can look concerned about without any substance. But I have seen fans connect it to the billboard for Chris Waites and the Carollers, which is hilarious. And speaking of, the mention of Susan was really cool, and so in-depth that it has me wondering if she'll actually come back, which I don't think New Who has made me do seriously before. Then again, it's so on the nose that surely it must be a red herring...

I can't wait to find out what it all means. And I can't wait for the next episode!

[marshmallowprotection]

do you think saeyoung is truly an extrovert? hear me out, but most of what we see is texting or through chats or the phone. its easy to act like your ideal self in the internet, but i wonder if when he's around people, he is more closed off. most people portray him as very zany and playful, and he is, but he is so much more than that too. idk if this makes sense. anyway, i really love reading your content. thanks for posting and sharing your ocs with us. ^^

Saeyoung is a complicated man. Here's the truth about him, he's a multifaceted person who has so many qualities that it's hard to just label him as one thing. He plays a role every time he goes somewhere because he was never allowed to just be himself. He hasn't been the person he wanted to be since he was a young child, and his perception of his identity isn't quite solidified.

Is he 707, is he Luciel, is he Saeyoung? Those are all different facets of himself that exist within his mind but they have never come together until he realizes that he no longer has to wear a mask. That's when he lets his guard down and lets you into his heart. It isn't easy to take off that mask and show people he is more than what he allowed them to see at face value.

I'd say that he loves to have fun and there's nothing wrong with writing him as somebody who likes to poke fun at others and tease them. But, if that's the only thing that you angle him as, you're missing quite a huge amount of who he is.

He is intelligent and wants to be taken seriously as a creator and builder. He wants to be complimented and told that he's doing a great job at what he does even if he would never admit. He doesn't want people to shrug him off when he creates something new and exciting. He wants people to take a chance and to believe he is so much more than the jokester mask he wore.

Saeyoung is a dreamer. He wants to make other people happy and he wants to make himself happy. He wants to create inventions that can make children's smile and can change his brother's life. He wants to have rational conversations about the universe and the way that it makes him feel.

He wants to babble and talk about anything and everything that makes him tick. He wants to take apart machines and figure out how they work. He wants to tell you how they work. He wants to explain what he finds out and how it can be made better. He wants to be free as a bird who never has to think about where he goes.

Luciel is the part tired part of him. Those feelings are the dark part of his heart that have struggled throughout the years with not only his faith but the way he feels about his choices. He struggles with paranoia and depression.

Sometimes he gets burned out from doing things. It feels overwhelming to think about what he's gone through and what's going to come next. There are days when he just wants to lay down and not do anything but cry. He isn't outgoing during those moments and sometimes he needs to recharge in the darkness so things can make sense again. He has his low moments and they seem to be much lower than he's willing to admit to most people.

So, if we piece all of those things together, it wouldn't make sense to call him one or the other. It would make more sense to say he's somewhere in the middle as an ambivert. He gets energy from being around the right people but he gets overwhelmed when it's not the right situation for him. He needs time to be alone so that he can collect himself, but he can perk back up when it's the right person. 

[ben-10-setting-omnicrom]

Speaking of ships with Ben tho I've recently thought up a really funny one that's even more crack than my semi serious Wordgirl/Ben 10 ship assuming they had a fused setting

The same applies to this one as above, ie the settings in question are fused.

Sabrina the teenage witch sitcom and Ben 10.

As much as I'm a hardcore Sabrina/Harvey shipper I think it'd be REALLY funny if Ben replaced Harvey in the series so he's dealing with the Highbreed and shit while out of school only to deal with the weird shit that happens in school.

None of it is strictly harmful exactly but definitely fucking weird.

It'd be even more hilarious when you consider shit like in canon Sabrina actually made Harvey pregnant by opening up a can of worms, this effectively turning her life into a soap opera until the effects wore off and Ben literally had 14 alien moth babies.

It's extra fun because Witches in Sabrina are probably THE most literal species in fiction. How literal? They can go on literal guilt trips and have literal emotional baggage. They have literal busy bodies. Being two faced causes another face to grow on the back of their head, having bat breath literally makes bats live in their mouths etc.

The powers of a Witch are basically a sitcom generator. A Witch's body is naturally esoteric (being a huge pocket dimension with all organs being sentient) and people literally take guided tours inside of their bodies and shit.

The zaniness of the setting can't be overstated. Hell the Witches there are easily some of the most powerful magic users in fiction being able to do shit like casually ascend to conceptual embodiments and visit different afterlives.

Not only would it be pretty funny to write but just generally pretty interesting too lol given Sabrina is always desperately trying to appear normal and Ben would absolutely sympathize with that.

For more on my musings of the settings being together for Wordgirl

Also I was being totally serious about that can of worms thing. The sitcom is chalk full of puns and metaphors being real.

[mickmundy]

okay so i know i kinda answered this in an ask BUT i really have been meaning to go through my gf and i's chats and find even more of our bushmeds so! ah! let's just think of this post as the dutchiebee medsnip masterpost where i will update with links to tags for each of these the more i ramble!! heh!! the catch-all tag for my personal bushmed rambles is still #medsnip of course, but some of these have specific tags as well! aaand as usual you can feel free to send asks or talk to me about any of these, i'm always glad to babble about them!! hehe!!

“Canon” MedSnip: the medic and sniper in Thou Giveth Fever is just the Main/Default/Canon/Whatever medic and sniper. takes place in same universe right after the comics! i default to talking about them the most!

Dutchiebee OC MedSnip: arlowe and wren! a lot of their story takes place pre-teufort but they eventually become RED’s medic and sniper! ^v^ “canon” red medic and sniper don’t exist in this universe. they’re already dating by the time they wind up at teufort together! we’re still working on a lot of their backstories but i’ll eventually talk more about them/write a fic for them too! ^u^

Vampire Medic/Hunter Sniper: sniper’s a vampire hunter who is hired by old, powerful and big vampire medic to do some dirty work for him. they end up falling for each other… but not before spilling a lot of blood together!

Merperson Medic/Human-Merperson Sniper: lots and lots of versions of this live in my mind but i think the one i'll elaborate on most is mermedic and lonely human fisherman sniper... for their fish parts, medic is a blanket octopus and sniper is a spotted wobbegong!! hehe... i also love the idea of mersnip and human medic, who harvests/researches exotic animal parts and is given sniper as a gift (mann co caught him? who knows) and thinks that sniper is simply too fascinating (handsome) to kill! hoo!

"Priest"-Demon Medic/Priest Sniper: medic was a human that was killed by the church and comes back as a demon set out to destroy it. takes interest in the church that sniper has been a part of for his whole life and begins causing chaos (falling wooden beams, gossip, making people question their faith etc. whatever medic thinks is fun at the moment)... but sniper catches his eye.... they develop feelings for each other..... but sniper doesn't know what medic Really Is.... gasps.... hehe

Researcher Medic/Swamp Monster Sniper: sniper is a werecroc that lives out in the comfy cozy australian bush/marshland (haven’t decided yet). roughs it as a human and also as a crocodile and loves being alone. until one day a very curious “doctor” starts stomping around his secluded slice of heaven in search of/researching the plants and animals of the area (to harvest for his zany experiments of course!)… sniper hates people but this one just seems kind of… Charming… hmm…. !

Cult God Medic/Nonbeliever Sniper: medic is a shapeshifting god/demon/spirit/whatever that thrives and grows in power from the cult that is convinced he exists and worships him. likes toying with them and giving them “signs” he exists and whatnot and loves the praise because, well, who wouldn’t! :-) hoo! buuuut a Certain Denier has caught his eye…! sniper thinks that cult nonsense is a load of crap and doesn’t fall for it. Naturally this makes medic Carnally Desire him and his attention… HEHE… >:)

Old/Retired/Domestic MedSnip: would follow my “canon” versions of them. years and years later, some vague skip of time. the sorrow..,., the sweetness.,., in the Unlikely Event they retire… how might that go.. :) sniper’s fine with aging but medic is NOT. everything can be defied! age! death! isn’t that what you want sniper!! but maybe sniper wants to retire to some small house on the german coast with medic.,., medic can extend his life infinitely with his “devil deal” but what about his sniper.,., who has already died once… but could either of them Really ever retire…? HEHEH.., i’ve actually written a lot of this and i should probably publish it in a standalone fic. very emotional very angsty!!

Unicorn Medic/Pegasus Sniper: EHE this is an extremely self indulgent one but i love it all the same! does what it says on the tin… what if they were ponies!! i’ve talked about it here and posted sniper’s design here! i need to work on medic’s just for the sake of having my own ref sheet to match sniper’s but i talk about him in the twt thread i linked! ^u^ <3 i just love gushing about them because i love ponies!!

[fairyhaven13]

👀

Yayyyyyyyyy

I'm going to try really hard not to be shy by taking advantage of the extreme flu daze I'm in right now so this will be a little rambly probably

This is Greed!!! Specifically the version from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. NOT 2003!! In the 2003 they destroyed his reform arc and killed him in a stupid way.

Greed is a homunculus made by another homunculus. Homunculusception. He's his homunculus Father's Greed made physical. Unlike his siblings, Greed decided being bad was boring and became greedy for friendship and affection most of all. But he's a himbo and didn't know how to express this, so it got him killed a couple times, his friends killed once, and made him confused with amnesia once to kill one of his friends. Which made him *really sad*. He had a total meltdown when he realized it was his friend he killed. Then he made more friends and saved the day by sacrificing himself at the end. Like, the whole show would have ended in disaster if not for him caring about his new friends more than himself.

I also specifically prefer this version, his main body, because after he dies the first time he gets fused to a different guy named Ling. Ling is super fun and basically Greed's best buddy, the guy who helps him reform in the first place, and sure when you're a kid, Ling is fine to be attracted to. But he's fifteen years old. So now that I'm almost thirty, I prefer to just find the original, fully adult Greed attractive, not his teen body. The guy is over 200 years old and doesn't deserve to be held back from dating by being stuck as a kid.

I have so many ideas for fics reviving him and reuniting him with his dead friends but it's so hard to write them because Greed is my absolute favorite and if I don't get him right, I stare at the document and go "no this ain't it chief" and lose interest. So it hasn't happened yet. But Greed's old friends were people he rescued from his siblings and basically adopted as his kids, and had them run a zany bar together before they died, so I really want them all alive and to meet his bestie Ling and to maybe have a zany bar in Ling's palace when he becomes emperor after the show because it's not like Ling's advisors can tell him not to have a bunch of Amestrian weirdos running a bar in the palace if he's the emperor! And Greed would be so happy if they were all alive with him because that's what he's GREEDY for is to BE WANTED AAAAAAAAAAAA

Anyway I love him and I'm sorry if this is completely unintelligible because of my flu, I genuinely can't think in straight sentences right now

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

Question: is the kingdom hearts story hard to follow or convoluted? I've been considering getting into the franchise but i haven't heard great things about the story

Oh it is convoluted alright.

Like, for a story standpoint, there is a lot of "What? Why!" going on, because it is connecting dotes that ether didn't need to be connected, or that didn't exist but now they do so we have to tie it in somehow.

That being said, that's part of what makes it fun for me.

Plus, I find the story is really easy to follow so long as you follow the plot game by game. It's like a slow build up of insanity that just kind of catches you off guard. It's a plot where you don't realize how crazy it is, until you try to explain it to other people and have to pull out a conspiracy board.

And it's funny, because I've only played a few games from the franchise.

358/2 Days

The mobile game

& Dream Drop Distance

And yet I never had trouble following the plot.

Plus, there are a ton of YouTubers who've made videos just talking about the plot of the games in an easy to understand manner, or even just cobbled all of the relevant cut scenes together in several giant films.

(Not to mention the manga that does the same thing but with more gags, and mild changes. I personally think 358/2 Days is the best of them.)

It really boils down to just how much your willing to tolerate Nomura's zany style of writing, and plot holes so big it consumes itself in a never ending cycle of key blades and mickey ears.

[aotopmha]

Some more FFXIV thoughts with 6.45 out (and a little bit of FFXVI sprinkled in there):

Spoilers!

So, Endwalker Hildibrand has been fantastic.

The issue with earlier Hildibrand was something A Realm Reborn and Heavensward shared in general (and now turns out FF16 does, too).

There just randomly were lulls where none of the fun wierd stuff was happening and everything screeched to a halt to simply "get there".

ARR had that horrible wine quest, Heavensward the Moogle quest and FF16 the ship quest.

And none of them needed to be as long as they were.

And not like Stormblood, Shadowbringers and especially Endwalker didn't have any of that, but at least the moments there either didn't last that long or were punctuated with much more compelling story.

But those three also had stuff like Ruby Sea (in fact some would argue SB had it worse than any of the expansions, having an entire zone of bore, HW and ARR just had some slow quests), the lead-up to Vauthry and the final Labyrinthos stretch.

(And to be fair, the Moogle quest did preceed some very good reveals.)

Yeah, about a decade in and the narrative pacing still went backwards in quality from Shadowbringers to Endwalker.

But the side stuff absolutely has seen massive improvements.

Some fantastic tribe quests, especially stuff like the Omicron and Loporrit quests in Endwalker, and just simple side quests adding much more to the main narrative than they often did in earlier expansions.

(Amaurot and Elpis in particular come to mind here. But also quests like the Tataru and Omega ones that have much more effort put in them than pretty much any others.)

I would argue the Alliance Raid in Endwalker is the first time an Alliance Raid story is relevant in just the right way, not minimal setup like Crystal Tower, but interesting story that is important, but not *too* important to the point where you can't experience the main story without it.

And to finally come to 6.45, Hildbrand has been part of that, as well, I think. Just so much better pacing between the zany and the mundane.

This latest Hildi quest was just a fantastic parody of the alien origin trope. I was laughing the entire way through the "reveal" sequence. So stupid. So wonderful.

Brandihild is also an absolute stroke of genius.

This entire questline is a great vehicle for the space theme of Endwalker.

But going back to more general talk, I really hope they just seriously work on the general pacing of the main expansions from this point on.

It doesn't need to be the longest story with the most content, all parts just need to flow together really well and be really well written.

The fact that 16 couldn't learn from ShB makes me sad, too. You can really tell it started development right after Heavensward because I think it basically shares pretty much all of the writing issues with ARR and HW in particular.

And maybe some of it isn't as bad as it seems if you put it into perspective, but it sure often *feels* longer than it should be. That's all because of it being written in a specific way.

Shadowbringers got the narrative structure and pacing *almost* perfect. I'd personally at most remove bits of Ill Mheg, Rak'tika, some of the lead-up to Malikah's Well and of course a step or two from the lead up to Vauthry as mentioned above.

(The latter bit and the Labyrinthos would actually already be improved by just giving them better variation in music.)

But I think ShB and EW mostly need trimming rather than complete removal or rewrites of sections.

I really think ARR, Heavensward and Stormblood especially really need (further) cuts, though. Some of it really doesn't add anything to the world and works better as a brief joke or detour than a prolonged bit.

People will stick around if the content is good. Padding keeps people around in the worst way possible.

I hoped 16 being a "new" story compared to 14 being inherited would not have as big of an issue with it and it would get the chance to learn from 14, but now I really hope they listen in regards of the pacing and take away the right lessons from the criticism directed at the side quests in 16: less fetch quests with nobodies, more character focus with the cast we care about, incorporating world building into the story via them and really looking at pacing stopgaps, how to slow down and when to (and not to) slow down because I really think it is the biggest narrative issue these games face.

I feel like 7.0 would be the perfect place to combine all of these lessons in storytelling, being "a new beginning" and I feel like the 6.x have been doing pretty well in that sense because patches tend to have pretty wild variations in pacing (5.1 vs 5.3).

Having concise prose, knowing when to speed up and slow down in the story and keeping it all compelling and exciting all the way through in long form while also making a good game around it all really feels extremely tough if you lay it out in the most simple terms like this.

But I'm very curious what they will and won't learn from all of this.

[nny11writes]

those tags are a really good way of reading it but just so you know i nearly started crying.

i dunno, sometimes friends get so close to each other that they end up really hurting each other, and then you make up and become friends again but that time of being really close has passed and things are a lot healthier but not nearly as intense as they used to be, and you wonder, if you were a better friend, would you still be close? but at the same time it's not as simple as that. sometimes it's a huge number of factors on both sides. sometimes people just grow apart and you can't control it.

anyway im going to draw spt cuddle piles to ease the pain

akldujfhglakjshdf, not my intention to make you cry!!!!

But also, yeah. Exactly. It can be heartbreaking in it's own unique way to spend a fun afternoon with some friends and afterwards realize that if you were closer (the way you used to be) that you would've kept hanging out. Maybe there's things you used to do together that you wouldn't anymore. You can trust them and love them, but still be afraid of them breaking your trust or hurting you (or afraid of yourself doing the same to them).

I think the Super Pal Trio falling into that would've been such a wonderful way to talk about that with a broad audience, but especially kids. Losing friends is hard. It hurts and it sucks and it's sensitive, and because so many societies don't place enough importance in platonic friendships they aren't given the sort of space that a romantic breakup is. There's this feeling that you're supposed to suck it up and not be so hurt about losing a friend. You can cry about a romantic breakup in public, but as an adult (at least for me) there's a lot of perceived pressure to get over it. Like, no, I will not!

Super Pal Trio being a friend group that does get to reconnect but never getting to be the way they were before would really be nice to see handled as a serious topic instead of as a gag. Catra regrets that when she had the chance to really be their close friend, she was too hurt to be able to. Entrapta regrets not verbalizing her love for them more, regrets that she didn't show more of her care. Scorpia regrets the way she forced things to happen, or ignored their wants. All three of them are in a "If I'd been a better friend, would we still be closer? I miss the way I used to feel with you and for you."

I see Entrapta and Catra as being closer post canon than Scorpia is with either of them. Things might feel easiest when the three are together, but Scorpia has never gotten the same sort of sit and talk it out situation with either of them. She had the chance with Entrapta but was too scared of being outcast and shunned for liking someone no one else did at the time, so she didn't stand up for her friend or their friendship. But she never had that chance with Catra, and when it finally came up the first time Scorpia did her usual thing. She was trying to be a good friend and let Catra know she forgives her, but accidentally instead cuts her off/talks over her and invalidates Catra during it too. I can see Catra eventually being hurt about the way it went and Scorpia feeling more and more guilty once it's pointed out but not knowing how to fix it.

I love her, but Scorpia is pretty conflict avoidant even at the end of the series, and it's something she needs to work on to be a better friend. Not just to stick up for herself more, but to also have uncomfortable conversations that are serious and heavy. She has to learn to sit with feeling bad about something and let her friends feel bad when they need to. I keep threatening to write Scorpia meta about what she did wrong and not doing it, but I feel pretty strongly that, realistically? The Super Pal Trio can't be what it was, and they can't even move forward until Scorpia has done some more work. Catra and Entrapta are shown in show learning more, and while Scorpia does learn to value herself more and lie less to herself about bad things we don't get to see her practice that with others.

[justin-chapmanswers]

Justin, if you don't mind me asking. Will be there more "Inanimate Answers"? (It's ok if you dont answer)

Answering another one of these separately because my brain had a little brain-thought. Noggin-whispers. Skull-wiggles.

Exit Interviews! Like today's! Are similar! To Inanimate Answers! Mayhaps't've??

For some background, for Blueberry's I arranged the questions in order and had Barry improvise answers. Then I used those responses to write transitional phrases for our interviewer, Yellow, whose dialogue was mostly scripted. Then with Fan's, I arranged the questions again, but then Brian and our interviewer, Absolute Legend Mickel™, completely improvised their interview on the spot. Then maybe Adam did some light improv for Lifering? OJ's was very scripted, but in a fairly straightforward question-answer way.

Aaaaand, to get the present, Since Box's bizarre Exit interview, Brian and I have been writing them out together, with occasional guest writers, such as Dee helping a lot for Clover's. And here the goal of each of them is to not only find fun answers to the viewer's questions, but to also either find a real core to a contestant's story and help them re-ground themselves post-show, like for Tea Kettle and Cabby, or to shed some more light on a character by having them have an affect on an interviewer who needs to learn a lesson, like for Lifering (in the Box Exit), Clover, and Goo.

And this was always the mentality of Inanimate Answers! Just in a new form. Sometimes Apple needs to learn a lesson from Justin+Santa, sometimes Justin needs to learn a lesson from Balloon. And, in both shows, zaniness ensues. I'm still laying out viewer questions, and getting to use them to craft a little story that explores character not only through those questions, but also a culmination of what those questions mean to the character. It's fun!

One plus for the Exit Interviews is that I get to craft an interviewer who works as a strong foil for the contestant. Dr. Fizz is the perfect target to be driven crazy by Lifering, Bryan as an Interviewer was written to have insecurities that only Clover could help with, and now with today's Goo Exit, I knew for a long long time I wanted to create an interviewer for Goo who would be entirely opposed to Goo's silly existence.

On the flip-side, getting to write the very very bizarre character of Inanimate Answers Justin is veryyyy fun. I do think he fits best when placed next to Knife, whom Justin was created to bounce off of. Not to say that Justin doesn't work next to the other contestants on Inanimate Answers, but I remember when I decided I wanted to do Balloon next that I realized that the core couldn't just be the comedy of Balloon being annoyed by Justin's zaniness, because Balloon natural wouldn't react as strongly as Knife. So, that's when we started exploring different types of cores of an episode, such as showing Justin in the wrong and needing Balloon to help show him the light. Or Justin and Bow who get along surprisingly well, and it becomes about their chemistry. Or Justin being able to easily spot the underlying insecurities Apple has and having a deep dive into the root of those.

Aaaaand after writing all that, I'm missing Inanimate Answers more haha.

But! Exit Interviews are always a delight, as well. And I very much hope that y'all have a fun time as I and the team play around with different fun ideas to play with the question-answering, whilst've still trying to make mainline eps as frequently as possible. Wish us luuuuuck.

Aaaanyway I'm really happy with the Goo Exit Interview. Gettin' all gooey thinking about it. Hope you enjoy! And lemme know what y'all think on Inanimate Answers vs Exit Interviews (vs Fan Features??)!

[soleilnomoon]

Hello dear! ♥╣[-_-]╠♥

I have a request for you if u don't mind! (｡・//ε//・｡)

Can i please ask for a scenario with Shanks and Law when they first meet fem! s/o that is physically the stereotyped version of the little short girl with a cute face but when they spend just the tiniest amount of time with her they immediately realize that her personality isn't even close to be compared her appearance cuz she's more of like a talkative, action-oriented, enthusiastic, and out-going type of person and they're just so perplexed lmao.

Like for Shanks it could be when he was at Party's and she was there just animatedly telling Makino how she nearly fell of a tree cuz she thought she had some insect in her skirt like what she was even doing on a tree??

And for Law I cannot imagine an other scenario than her being a strawhat and him being 'forced' in staying with them because of the alliance lmao. To the point to suspecting her being Luffy's sister or something, but also it would get him off guard cuz SHE is NOT LOGICAL! cuz he may think that PERSONALITY AND APPEARANCE MUST MUCH! Lol

Of course you can change them as you want boss 😉!

I hope you have fun writing them 💜 and please feel free to delete the ask if you don't feel like doing them! 🌻

hihi! i decided to just do law, since it was getting a little long, i hope you don't mind (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

1k words, fem reader, sfw, a tiny bit of angst, some fluff if you can find it; no warnings, i know i'm shocked too. law is emotionally constipated, idk what to tell u

it’s not often that law finds himself in predicaments that he cannot get himself out of, but it seems that ever since he went into an alliance with luffy, he’s been a part of a joke with a long punchline. namely because he meets you and doesn’t know exactly what to make of you. 

not particularly liking when things do not go his way, law’s initial assessment is that you’re someone with sense, someone who will listen to reason, who has their life together, who won’t defy orders as long as it doesn’t compromise who you are as a person. his justification is that you seem so put-together, so calm, with your attire, your face, even your demeanor. you are someone he can possibly convince to be the voice of reason for the rest of your crew. it’s something he wants to set in motion, but all of that comes to a halt the moment he’s alone with you.

you were advised to not scare law off with your chattiness, brash attitude, reluctance to listen to directions, and overall zany thought-process. what law perceives as calmness is really you doing your best to stay focused and mature. what he perceives as trustworthiness — in the traditional sense — is a rouse you put on to get others to lower their guards around you. it’s never intentional, but you know that your personality is not for everyone. where luffy simply does not care how people see him, you do — to a certain extent. this doesn’t stop you from acting as you normally do, you just are a bit more… considerate. for a brief amount of time, that is.

it’s when you stand on the railing on the deck of the sunny, where you shout loudly, your animated speech catches him off guard. he stares hard, unblinking as he takes in the scene before him. because he’s the only one nearby, he looks over at where you’re pointing and realizes that your excitement is over a pod of whales swimming nearby, disrupting the surface of the ocean and making large ripples that knock into the sunny.

he doesn’t understand why that excites you, but the water splashes onto the deck and you’re half-drenched. you hop off the railing and laugh loudly, wiping ocean water off your face, droplets clinging to your cheeks and ends of your hair. his frown confuses you, even as you ring the rest of the water out of your hair, you try to figure him out.

he’s so serious all the time, you wonder if he’s actually human; it’s not a far-fetched assumption, given how stoic he is sometimes. he asks you if you’re somehow related to your captain, and you laugh again, doubling over as he frowns more, unsure if you’re teasing him or what.

“me? related to luffy? that’s wild!” 

you haven’t heard anyone ask you that outright before, so it tickles you; makes you puff your cheeks out, desperately trying to stifle any and all giggling. your skin — kissed by the sun, the golden rays highlighting the warm undertones of your brown skin — is a marvel; smooth and soft, an unbearable to touch you overwhelms him so he takes a step back and shakes his head at your antics.

law comes to the conclusion that you might just be worse than your captain; it has nothing to do with anything you’ve done personally, but because of how intriguing he finds you. it’s mostly because he still doesn’t quite understand you, what makes you tick, what drives you to act as rambunctious as you do. why do you insist on living loudly, on shrugging off the labels and perceptions that society has placed on you? he wants to ask, but knows the moment he brings it up, you’ll find a way to make him speechless.

it’s a problem he’s yet to find a solution to. but the more time he spends with you, the more his fondness grows; he’s hard-pressed to let people into his life, but he makes an exception for you. at first, he reasons that it’s due to your insistence on imposing yourself on him that he just relents. for your sake, not his. but that’s not the case at all. his eyes are less critical when he looks your way, he finds himself laughing a little more at your antics, and while you still will never be remotely close to his level of calmness, he’s had an effect on you as well.

it’s inevitable, you wiggling your way further and further into his heart. he’s reluctant, fights it with every fiber of his being. the people he loves tend to disappear before long, but you tell him over and over and over again that you have no intention of leaving. not now, not ever. it seems a little too good to be true, so you insist daily in between impromptu hugs, in between secret kisses when the others aren’t paying attention, in between the secrets you share. you teach him that life is much too short to hold grudges and negativity, and he teaches you that well-thought out plans have a place in life.

whether or not you’ll actually take his advice to heart is another thing entirely. and while he might never actually admit this to you yet, he’s quite glad he aligned himself with your crew — not out of any serious affection for them, but because he got to meet you. it’s something he keeps to himself, something that has his cheeks flushed whenever he watches you speak, something that keeps him awake some nights. you know there are things he wants to tell you and know that if you pry, he’ll retreat within himself, so you bide your time — surprisingly — remaining patient until he finds the right way to express himself properly. it might take weeks or months, maybe even years; but you don’t mind at all. 

everyone moves at their own pace, you know this better than anyone; so you’ll wait and wait for as long as it takes him, content that he’s even offered that part of him to you without realizing it completely. 

[manicpixiess]

✨coaching kid aesthetic✨ (for my desi stem gang where y’all at)

I have been in 12th grade for approximately fifteen months now (my thanks, Ramesh Pokhriyal, it’s been fun :) ) and if I don’t romanticise studying for entrances, I Simply Will Not Do It, so here goes!

~ that ever-growing pile of dry, used up pens that you cannot bring yourself to discard because goddamn it took a lot of effort to get them that way

~ finding yourself caught in a rabbit hole on chemistry stack exchange at 2 in the morning, because you’ll be damned if you let that one possibly irrelevant question on the DPP sheet slide

~ standing around the momo/ assorted shady street food stall outside the coaching centre, wasting that sweet, sweet fifteen minute break discussing a deliciously unsolvable question with your academic rivals; for a while you’re all just confused kids together, and it’s not that bad

~ quiet moments of absolute despair in between classes or after a test or at your desk after a long day, because oh god there’s hundreds of thousands of people writing this exam and I can’t compete with any of them

~ flipping through your full rough books once the last page has been completely covered with scribbled equations, because I did that I did that I did all of that

~ your walls are a collage of zany inspirational posters that your parents thought would somehow help, pages and pages of organic reaction mechanisms, handy math formulae, tiny physics concepts that are so important and so forgettable, salt analysis spreads that you know you won’t give a second glance

~ finding a youtube video from a Kota coaching centre or a 7 year old reddit thread that exactly answers the ultra specific question you had is as close as you’ve come to happiness in 3 years (followed closely by solving a hard question from one of those textbooks that no one remembers the actual name of, it’s just the author’s name)

~ the only revision you need before a test is the notes you scrawled to yourself that fill the covers and end pages of your notebooks; most of them are quite profane and that is okay, it drives the point home 

~ stacking all your reference books and textbooks into a tottering pile, laughing hysterically as it grows taller than you 

~ books everywhere; on your bed, on your desk, on your parents’ bed, in the kitchen, in the closet; an aggrieved do you really need them all from a family member. Yes, you think, but don’t say, because it’s more a fact from here and a reaction from there than anything else

~ saturday morning classes; watching the sunlight streaming in through the window while learning something fanciful and difficult, eating lime and orange popsicles with your friends, everyone pretending to hate it, but really, they’re all happy.

~ going from nervous, to eager, to tired, just tired over the course of two years; sleep is for the weak, your friends tell each other as you all stay up till the sun rises, cramming for something that will be forgotten in a week. You fall asleep anywhere, anytime, because it’s been so long since you slept a full eight hours 

~ reminiscing about tenth grade, the good old days, but you know that these are the friends you’ll remember for the rest of your life; nothing brings people together quite like common suffering, after all

~ talking often of all the things you could be doing if didn’t have to study, but really, you wouldn’t know what to do yourself

~ saying no, over and over again, to all the people who call you out, to family engagements, to other friends, because you’ve lived so long in this world that you’ve forgotten what it’s like on the other side

~ the group chat after 3 am is for detailing exactly how you screwed are for the next day’s test, for a friend to point out that they are, in fact, more screwed than you (discussions on what exactly the point of life is are also allowed)

~ coming out of exam rooms sweaty and relieved, because no one will expect anything of you for the next fortnight, waiting outside them for your friends to finish so you can have a collective freakout (you can’t be the only one who forgot about instantaneous axes of rotation and acid catalysed aldol reactions, right? Right?)

~ your friends are your therapists, and you are theirs, because even (or especially) in a system intent on pitting kids against each other, you rely on each other to keep (some approximation of) happy and motivated 

~ jokes about being sad, scared, tired, angry, hurt; because feeling any of it takes up more time than can be spared

~ ink stained hands, heavy bags, clothes that are loose and old

~ regular schoolwork is ignored, bio/comp labs are gossip sessions, physics labs are for getting confused when g isn’t 9.8, chemistry labs are for unleashing pyromaniacal chaos 

~ it’s either one question taking up an entire day or 200 questions in 4 hours, there’s no in between 

~ looking at the stars in the sky after a late class, thinking that some day, you’ll be far away from here, doing something you love; then thinking that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t all bad 

[loveoaths]

@brighterburn requested: 6 (senjuro), 13, 18! ♥

6. Name 3 things you love most about your muse/muses.

oh, senjuro, my baby boy.

1). he is so fucking normal. like he is Just A Guy and i think that's awesome in a series about people who can kill vampire demon god. i think a lot of my love for senjuro ( and demon slayer as a whole ) stems from my issues with the naruto manga. senjuro is what i wanted hinata to be: someone who tries to fit into this world of violence because that's what's expected, only to realize, no, i can't do this. i don't want to do this. they offer us key insight into the lives of normal people in-universe.

2). despite being so fucking normal and average in a lot of ways, senjuro is still beloved by a lot of people. his worth doesn't come from being a soldier. his worth comes from being someone who values and loves other people, who provides for them and supports them. people like him and the kakushi are the only reasons our demon slaying heroes can exist. that's fucking dope.

3). he is so goddamn insecure but he still tries his hardest. that's the true meaning of an underdog to me. he has no natural talent, no secret power, no nothing. he's just a human being trying his hardest to keep his family together, which is what most of us spend our lives doing. when his arcs on this blog come to fruition and he finally has a decisive combat win, it will be because of his sheer perserverance, dedication, and resourcefulness, and not because of a power up.

4). and a bonus: all of senjuro's flaws are also his strengths, and vice versa. his insecurities about his self-worth make him work harder. working hard without recognition makes him feel invisible. being invisible will eventually become his greatest strength in a key fight. the way those things flow into one another is just... chef's kiss.

13. Is there one trope you can’t stand?

uh . . . having trouble thinking of something at the moment, so i'm going to talk about a trope i love: sacrifice as selfish. so often sacrifice is held up as the most heroic action, but turning that on its head opens up more avenues of exploration. like, so you sacrificed yourself for the greater good. was it worth it? how much did you really change? who have you destroyed in the process? are there alternatives to sacrifice? what if loss was neither good nor bad, it just hurts? generally speaking i love turning any trope over in my hands to find the new ways to play with it.

18. What is one thing you’d wish to see more in the rp community?

reading comprehension. communication -- actual communication, not the uncomfortable dancing-around-the-subject stuff. a more communicative rpc is a better, more inclusive, and just plain more fun rpc. everyone can do their part to make it better. if you are someone who struggles with uncomfortable discussions, it may be worth it for you to dwell on why that is and take slow steps toward working on it. it will only benefit you irl and online as you age. i'm saying this as an old man who was bad at all these things when he started writing online back in elementary school.

and finally: i want more fun. years ago the rpc had events, dash zaniness, and just so much cross-over and fun. i miss that. the fear of stepping out of line has really robbed us of the beauty of cooperative writing. i wish we could get back there, but frankly i don't see it happening on a wide scale anytime soon.

[youhearstatic]

For your blupjeans game: free choice? An au based on a story you think is fun but you don't think you'll write!

There's a Shah Rukh Khan movie that came out several years ago called "Jab Harry Met Sejal" that I think would be an adorable Blupjeans AU.

Picture Lup as a world traveling tour guide. It's a great life for her. She has no roots, no ties, she drags tourists around during the day and at night she parties and flirts and does as she pleases. It's an easy, breezy, free floating sort of life.

She dumps off her newest group at the airport and is looking forward to a week off when one of the tourists (Barry, of course) comes rushing up to her insisting he needs her help. He lost something important at the bar they went to the night before and he can't leave without it. She does everything she can to blow him off but he won't be dissuaded and eventually all she can do is take him there and hope that will get rid of him.

They go to the bar which is of course closed this early and she gets them to let them come search. While he searches everywhere he was in this place, she basically is just bored and waiting for him to be done. But slowly it comes out, he lost the engagement ring that's been in his family for generations. He was supposed to do the big public proposal with it and he can't leave without it.

What follows is a zany trip across fantasy Europe to each and every place they'd been to on the two week tour, chasing one ridiculous lead after another.

And falling in love.

Barry had been all set to marry the daughter of the family his family has known for decades because it would make all their families happy and he's never found anyone else he cared about, she's nice, so why not. (He doesn't love her is why not. She doesn't love him either. It's convenient, is all.)

Meanwhile Lup, for all she seems to enjoy her life, every time Barry seems to have any real interest in her, she points out that she's the one guys fall for but not the one guys stay with. They might want to have a fling with the cute tour guide, but no one ever wanted to settle down with her or bring her home to meet the parents.

Barry, of course, thinks she's trying to keep him at a distance because he's just not good enough for her. Especially since they just! keep! running! into! her! flings! and they are all young and handsome and fun.

They keep going and searching and not finding the ring and falling more in love but also more certain the other could never really feel the same.

And then they run into her brother Taako. He's getting married and he wants her to stick around, meet his fiance, come to the wedding. Please, she's rarely around, just a few texts a week, maybe a phone call. He'd really like her to be there.

Barry insists no only on them staying but on throwing him a party to celebrate. Lup sees how much it means to her brother and throws herself into it. Once she meets Kravitz and sees how crazy the two are for one another, she's even more committed to giving him the perfect party and wedding. And there's Barry, acting as co-host of the party and helping make sure it's the perfect, magical night.

When everyone leaves, it's just the two of them and the happy couple. Taako wants to know what's up between them. Lup shrugs it off. "It doesn't matter. He's a tourist and this is a holiday. In the end, everyone goes home."

And Barry, who'd been so happy and light and, for the first time in his life, completely at home in this group of strangers, feels that push again, of her shoving him away.

Taako and Kravitz leave and they are alone. "Where do we go next to find the ring?" she asks him.

He's distracted by her words earlier and slow to answer so she answers for him. "I think you go home now. It's time you go back to your real life."

So he faces her and says, "I don't want to. I don't want to go back. I've been a different person, a happier person, I-"

"So now you're going to be the guy who dumps his girlfriend, his fiance? And runs off with the tour guide? Come on, that's not who you want to be."

"What do you want, Lup?"

"It doesn't matter what I want."

"Of course it does."

And she's silent for far too long. "I want you to go back to your life."

So he does. He leaves an envelope for her and when she opens it she finds the ring and a short note. 'I found it a few days ago, caught in my jeans pocket. But you're the only one I wanted to give it to so I'm leaving it with you.'

Of course, she goes after him, tries to find him but he's gone. So she goes back to her life, being a tour guide, and okay, at least spending more time around Taako. And after a few months of her moping around and coasting through her days, Taako tells her to move on and forget about the guy. He's gone, probably married by now, get over it.

But she doesn't want to, she tells him.

"Then why didn't you tell him that?"

"Would it have mattered?"

"I don't know, that's not up to me! It's up to him! But you never said anything!"

So of course, she decides she WILL go tell him. At his wedding, which had of course come up in their weeks together, the whole big double family shindig at the biggest hotel in his city and the looming date of the thing. So she shows up, ready to crash the wedding and make her declaration.

But he's not part of the happy couple at the alter. The wedding was cancelled and some other couple got the venue.

Of course he outside when she leaves and they finally talk and kiss and live happily ever after because they're Blupjeans and I say they always always always do.

[bluecloudious]

Here's a little rant about Kits and Zanaz canon, cause I have quite a few thoughts that I dunno what else to do with and my head was aching really bad (and I wanted to get smth done), so I decided to share some of the ones that I've been debating for a while (It's pretty long, be warned):

The TL;DR is just the thought names, I guess.

Thought nr 1: They are 100 percent a couple, even in the first comic I posted of them.

I've been thinking about this a lot, whether they were just best friends who had crushes on one another, or if they were just straight up a thing and, yeah. They're just a couple and have been for a while. The written story is now the AU where Zani chickened out of confessing his feelings for so long that he finally was given a deadline. Comics are the canon and in that canon, they got together shortly after becoming agents. Zani occasionally flirts with other people, but that's just kinda a part of his personality and Kits has grown used to it. Their shipname is Kitzan.

Thought nr 2: Kits has no self-confidence.

In the meeting comic I tried to make it a bit noticeable how unhappy he is with himself, but even after transitioning, that fact has only slightly changed. He is his preferred gender now, but he still isn't confident at all about his looks, his voice or what he says, despite how much Zanaz tries to convince him that he's fine. The only thing Zanaz has managed to stop Kits from doing is actually being self-destructive aka Kits starved himself for a while (also hinted at in the comic). That's why he's way chunkier now- cause his body stopped trusting him and gained fat afterwards. All of this isn't really visible or audible in any of the comics, because Kits isn't vocal about it at all. Zanaz is the only person who really even knows it/cares about it. It's also the base for his mostly detail-less design compared to Zani- he's trying not to stick out.

Thought nr 3: They both have a body count

Yeah, they've both killed before, which, for the world they live in, isn't really surprising. It was all in self-defence, don't worry. The amount of rogue agents and grunts that decide to deviate in a violent way is a pretty big percent, so they've had to encounter quite a few of them. Zanaz' preferred weapon is of course the handgun/glock and is the more experienced/lethal of the two. Kits on the other hand is more proficient with knives, his main weapon being a shaving knife he got from Zani. He hasn't had to use it much, but the few times he has, we're pretty desperate. Zanaz also has a body count in the other sense too, but you could probably tell that much already.

Thought nr 4: I still do not think they'll have a happy ending

Sorry, but the happy ending Kits and Zanaz I drew are just a part of an AU as well. There is no malicious reason for why I think they'll die. They just happen to get the short end of the stick, just like most members of the A.A.H.W. We are talking about an agency that has at least three(four if you count that one incident with 2bdamned) very proficient people constantly killing staff. There are so many deaths that they have to use clones, for pete's sake! The amount of time they've already managed to be alive for is quite impressive (I imagine about 3 years).

Thought nr 5: Zanaz is even more protective of his inner feelings than Kits is

Even though Zanaz is very blunt and honest about most things, even some considered private info to most, he is not actually open about how he feels. He hides his negative emotions as much as he possibly can, even from Kits. (This was briefly explored in the written story, also.) The only reason Kits knows this, is because he's caught Zani crying to himself in less visited areas of their main facility, once or twice. Even then he wouldn't say what's wrong, that's how stubborn he is. All Kits could really do when this happened, was hug him and pat his head.

Fun facts that I didn't know how to categorize:

Zanaz is a dog person and Kits is a cat person. They combine to become bird people. (Yes, this is my excuse to draw dog boy Zani at some point.)

Zanaz' and Kits' personalities are based off myself. Of course in an amplified way, but yeah, I relate to them a lot. (Others have claimed to relate as well, which is most pleasant.)

They get their shade colors from RGB. Regular agents have red, Zanaz has green and Kits has blue.

I occasionally draw them during my free time! Most of those pictures I will not be posting to Tumblr, however. Some cause they're just kinda sketches that I don't really see a point in posting and others are just straight up not Tumblr appropriate.

Kits and Zanaz had not dated anyone before each other. Kits cause of insecurity and Zanaz because he didn't want any commitment. They are still very loyal to each other, tho.

The main song I listen to whenever I draw Zanaz is Left Boy- Security Check. Kits doesn't have a song that I listen to and get his vibe, but I am still looking.

Bit of a bonus tangent too:

I'm sorry that most of these are negative. The funni bois are, ya know, funny, and I tend not to make media about them that isn't funny, but I wanted to blabber about how I think they are when not performing a punchline.

When I design characters, I never only think about the positive personality traits. I tend to instead think about what the negatives are, so I can figure out, how they handle it. How they cope and how they've grown from their negative experiences/emotions enchants me.

I've said this before, Kits and Zanaz got created on a whim, basically unintentionally. But, I grew attached to the two idiot agents with different color shades. Thus, I wanted to know more about them.

I think, by now, I've figured them out for the most part. (Thankfully I don't have to give them any family or nothing, cause they're both clones.)

Also, their color scheme is final. If you've noticed, they're shades have changed shade over time. Zanaz' got brighter, while Kits' got darker. The suit color is a random shade every time, cause I just choose a dark shade of gray via slider. Hair color hasn't changed at all, as far as I know. Only Good Ending Zani has darker hair, cause he had it colored.

And, speaking of the Good Ending AU, I don't think I know what to do with the concept. I try to think more into it, but my brain blanks. If anyone wants to draw or write about it, I would be completely fine with it. Might even consider it canon, if none of it conflicts with the established canon. Good Ending AU takes place in the far future, after all.

But, yeah, I think that's it. I'm kinda honestly surprised if anyone actually reads all of this, lol. I hope you found my long-ass tangent about my two silly gay MadCom OCs interesting :)))

[22drunkb]

Please tell me about the Tim Curry phenomenon?

Hoist on my own petard! Okay.

So just in case what I said was unclear, when I said “Tim Curry as a phenomenon” I didn’t mean that there was some Thing That Happened, like [rummages in ancient tumblr lore] mishapocalypse or something. I just mean what Tim Curry has come to signify in popular culture for certain kinds and generations of people. I would not consider myself a Tim Curry expert, I don’t know a ton about his life and filmography, but I do experience him as that kind of icon or signifier, so all I’m going to be talking about is that (and for this reason I have determined I am not going to look anything up). (@tafadhali​ I’m going to need to you let me know how I did when this is all over.) So:

Tim Curry is an actor. He is probably best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, Muppet Treasure Island, Home Alone 2, the 90s miniseries of It, and maybe now that one clip of him that circulates online from time to time where he’s yelling about going to space and trying not to laugh. The key facts are:

Tim Curry has incredible presence and charisma. He is not an actor who “disappears into the role.” He is a very skilled performer--it’s not like he plays the same thing in every role, and if somebody else could do what he does, many more people would be doing it--but he’s the kind of actor who gets used as a shorthand to describe characters, or other actors. “A Tim Curry type.” He works in Muppet Treasure Island because he’s in no way naturalistic, and so he can play off puppets no problem. We could comparatively describe this as The Jack Black Factor.

Tim Curry has a very distinctive voice (speaking and singing) and way of delivering lines, such that his accent comes off as almost put-on or parodic without ever quite going over the top. (This is true when he’s actually putting on an accent and when he’s not.) His delivery has unusual emphases that make the lines stick with you. These qualities are equally suited to comedy and creepiness, and he reasonably often does both at the same time. So he easily becomes a kind of factory for references, a meme factory before we called things memes. We could comparatively describe this as The Christopher Walken Factor.

Tim Curry has been in a lot of movies. These movies’ quality ranges from “hilariously bad” to “not good by mainstream standards, but objectively incredible at being the kind of movie it is” to “beloved hit, but nobody would call it High Cinema.” (If Tim Curry has also been in prestige films recognized as such,* I do not disrespect them or him, but I don’t know about it! And that’s part of the Tim Curry phenomenon!) I have not come up with a comparison for this--it’s less a distinctive thing than something that becomes important in combination with the first two.

Tim Curry always does an incredible job in these movies, whatever their quality. And he always seems to be having a great time doing it. One of the top YouTube comments on that clip I linked reads, “A reviewer once said about Tim Curry: ‘For every 1-star movie he's been in, he's the reason that movie got that star.’” He delivers a specific feeling of intense talent being directed, with great pleasure, to a purpose that is, on some level, inexplicable. (No one else would say this line this way! Why is he doing that! Because he’s Tim Curry, and that’s good enough, dammit!) This creates a sensation that somehow combines “admiration” and “this is hilarious,” but in a different way than you might admire a great stand-up set. It’s on purpose without feeling deliberate. It’s cheese being executed at the level of high art. It’s ridiculous and it’s fantastic. IT’S CAMP, BABY. Put that together with the ability to walk a knife-edge between hilarious clown and scary villain (he played Pennywise, hello), in the context of what the film industry outside of Very Special Episode morality tales has been for most of his career, and you have a recipe for a queer culture icon. I give you Frank-N-Furter.

So Tim Curry at this point means a certain quality or texture of zaniness--but one that’s not maniacal or exactly cartoonish, just like, orthogonal to what’s expected or normal. You get Tim Curry for a role when you want things to feel a little too much but in the best way; when you want to sit right on the line between “this character is out of sync with reality” and “telling the audience this is a heightened reality.” This is assuming you’re a good filmmaker who knows what you’re doing. He is the best thing in some bad movies because he reliably creates this delightful sensation even when the movie doesn’t have a clear purpose for it; he can make objectively bad material fun to watch because the things that made the writing dumb or the costuming bad are campy and fun in his hands. This is kind of what I meant by an inexplicable purpose: it doesn’t need to make sense to work. This is also what I mean about being on the line between “is the character acting nuts or is this the kind of world the movie is setting up”--when it’s not what the movie is trying to do, but the movie is failing at what it is trying to do, Tim Curry suddenly makes that fun to watch because whatever he’s doing is both of quality and basically ineffable.

So this is why we live in a world where, say, Justin McElroy can build a whole bit on MBMaM around just repeatedly spitting out the words “CHEESE! PIZZA!” in a Tim Curry voice, or Tim Curry appears on The Simpsons. At this point Tim Curry is not just a man or an actor, he’s a mood. And because that mood is hard to describe, we mostly only invoke it by referring to him. But it’s a wonderful thing that has a lot of room in it to be enjoyed in different ways, whether it’s about queerness or comedy or surrealism or performance craft that isn’t smothered by the uptight standards of “naturalism” or “realism” or “subtlety.” And Clue is one of the best venues for it because it is a good movie made by people who did know what they were doing, and what they were doing was aimed exactly at creating the Tim Curry Experience: it’s clever and artful at being campy and cheesy, and its darkness and funniness are wrapped together in so many layers you can’t separate them.

BONUS:

Evidence of Tim Curry’s skill as a performer: look at him Not Being Tim Curry on SNL here with Eddie Murphy, maybe the one time I can think of that he’s in the “straight man” role. (An FYI more than a warning: The sketch is poking at racism--I think it holds up really well, but it’s deliberately pushing ~the line.)

__________________________________ *I know a lot of Film People etc. now consider Clue a genuine genius classic--for good reason! it’s incredible!--but it wasn’t received that way, and to the extent that it has gained this recognition it’s by that rubric of “succeeds at what it’s trying to do, which is more important than whether what it’s trying to do is be Citizen Kane Paddington 2.”

[cosmicangst]

i loooove the way you talk about otome bc so many people assume it’s always silly and unrealistic and even if is sometimes it’s like women can’t enjoy this kind of stuff without being ridiculed lmao. Ive just bought code realize and can’t wait to try it, if I recall correctly you played it, right? Also after what you said about cxm i might try it too!! Have a great day❤️

oh absolutely. i’ve read romance novels and played romance-oriented games for a long time and ive learned just how hard it is to find a non-romance writer who can write a compelling love story. i genuinely believe my favorite romance authors could write stephen king’s genre but stephen king couldn’t write theirs yknow?

people who denigrate romance whether that’s western novels or otome or oelvns underestimate the craft of writing character development through intimacy, vulnerability, and chemistry. because not only do you have to make the reader invested in these two characters as individuals you have to convince them why the two are compelling and/or compatible together in a romantic dynamic. it’s not easy and that’s why i have so much respect for people who contribute and support this genre, especially as a creative space which is majorly female-oriented and led.

the industry itself is largely marketed to and by cishet creators/audiences (and joseimuke w lgbt+ elements can get fetishistic but that’s a separate discussion) but no genre has introduced me to more queer indie creators and niche artists of color than romance media. so i never take any of this misogynistic put downs or this labeling of “guilty pleasures” seriously. i think especially for otome part of the appeal is that campy and silly elements are not only welcome but expected at times. and on the opposite end of that an otome can treat itself as seriously as it can and both takes can coexist and live in the same world. i think what i ultimately love about it for all of its problems (and what genre doesn’t have any) is this lack of self-consciousness in any of its choices. the devs/writers can be as creative (as zany as grimdark as fun) as it wants to the point that the worst sin an otome could commit is to be boring. like in one game you can play as a simple cafe owner who gets to romance a headless fairy and in the next you can play as a steampunk victorian lady who has toxic skin and could potentially kill her love interests by touching them?? where else can you find that???

anyway, off my soapbox now lol. and yes! code: realize is pretty great. cr and cxm are solid choices for console otome so you’ll have a (mostly) fun time w both!